YMMV / Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart

• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Lancelot has a couple pieces of Christ parallelism, which contrast oddly with his other very un-Christlike traits.
  • Public humiliation was one of the torments Christ endured. He did so for the sake of humanity and it's a mark of love. Lancelot likewise is willing to endure the public humiliation of riding in a cart, and the willingness to demean himself in this way is a mark of his love for Guinevere.
  • Lancelot crosses the sword bridge by crawling with bare hands and feet (he wants dexterity to keep him from falling more than he wants protection from the blade). He arrives with bleeding hands, knees, and feet. There's some stigmata imagery in that.
  • Lancelot goes into a kingdom from where none can return and frees the prisoners there, which is like the Harrowing of Hell.
  • There's a prophecy foretelling his coming, which he fulfills by him being the only man who can lift the lid off a tomb.
• Ho Yay: While not particularly present in Chrétien's section, Godefroi de Leigni's Lancelot and Gawain are suddenly extra important to each other.
  • Lancelot really wants — expects, even — for Gawain to recuse him from his Girl in the Tower situation. This is not an exclusively romantic trope, but it often is, even elsewhere in this very story.
    Lancelot: Ah, Gawain, you who possess such worth, and whose goodness is unparalleled, surely I may well be amazed that you do not come to succour me. Surely you delay too long and are not showing courtesy. He ought indeed to receive your aid whom you used to love so devotedly! For my part I may truly say that there is no lodging place or retreat on either side of the sea, where I would not have searched for you at least seven or ten years before finding you, if I knew you to be in prison. But why do I thus torment myself? You do not care for me even enough to take this trouble. The rustic is right when he says that it is hard nowadays to find a friend! It is easy to rest the true friend in time of need. Alas! more than a year has passed since first I was put inside this tower. I feel hurt, Gawain, that you have so long deserted me! But doubtless you know nothing of all this, and I have no ground for blaming you. Yes, when I think of it, this must be the case, and I was very wrong to imagine such a thing; for I am confident that not for all the world contains would you and your men have failed to come to release me from this trouble and distress, if you were aware of it. If for no other reason, you would be bound to do this out of love for me, your companion. But it is idle to talk about it—it cannot be.
  • After Lancelot is freed and returns to court, we find out that his affections are not one-sided:
    ...as soon as he sees Lancelot, from dismounting and extending his arms to him, as he embraces, salutes and kisses him. Now he is happy and at ease, when he has found his companion. Now I will tell you the truth, and you must not think I lie, that Gawain would not wish to be chosen king, unless he had Lancelot with him.
• Stealth Parody: Lancelot is ridiculous, and there's a reading to be had that Chrétien is making fun of him. However, it appears that when Marie commissioned him to write the story, she was asking for an earnest, non-parody story. So there's also an available reading that Chrétien is subtly poking fun at Lancelot just as far as he can without crossing the line into outright parody.
• Values Resonance: A thousand-year old story with explicit verbal consent.
  Lancelot: It would take more than these bars to keep me out. Nothing but your command could thwart my power to come to you. If you will but grant me your permission, the way will open before me. But if it is not your pleasure, then the way is so obstructed that I could not possibly pass through.
  Guinevere: Certainly, I consent. My will need not stand in your way.

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